GENERAL LAISTD OFFICE. 


UNITED STATES MINING LAWS, 

AND 



AI^PROVED DECEMBER 15, 1897. 








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V .----—..- 


GENERAL LAND OEEICE. 


UNITED STATES MINING LAWS, 

AND 

REGULATIONS THEREUNDER. 


APPROVED DECEMBER 15, 1897. 


10103-1 


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", UNITED STATES MINING LAWS, AND REGULATIONS THERE- 
UNDER, RELATIVE TO THE RESERVATION, EXPLORATION, 
LOCATION, POSSESSION, PURCHASE, AND PATENTING OF THE 
MINERAL LANDS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. 


Department of the Interior, 

General Land Office. 

MINERAL LANDS OPEN TO EXPLORATION, OCCUPATION, 

AND PURCHASE. 

Sec. 2318, R. S. In all cases lands valuable for minerals shall be Mineral lands 

reserved from sale, except as otherwise expressly directed by law. reserved. _ 

Sec. 2319. All valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the 4 July, 1866, c. 
United States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to 166, s. 5, v. 14, p. 
be free and open to exploration and purchase, and the lands in which . 
they are found to occupation and purchase, by citizens of the United openTo^purchase 
States and those who have declared their intention to become such, py citiz^s. 

under regulations prescribed by law, and according to the local cus- -——-;— 

toms or rules of miners in the several mining districts, so far as the 452 *^ g ^7 ’ ^ 
same are applicable and not inconsistent with the laws of the United 91 / ’ ’ ‘ ’1' 

States. 


NATURE AND EXTENT OF MININO CLAIMS. 

1. Mining claims are of two distinct classes: Lode claims 
and lilacers. 


LODE CLAIMS. 

Sec. 2320, R. S. Mining claims upon veins or lodes of quartz or other 
rock in place bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, copx^er, or other orTodes!^^ 

valuable deposits, heretofore located, shall be governed as to length- 

along the vein or lode by the customs, regulations, and laws in force c. 

at the date of their location. A mining claim located after the tenth J"-’ P- 

day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, whether located by 
one or more persons, may equal, but shall not exceed, one thousand 
live hundred feet in length along the vein or lode; but no location of 
a mining claim shall be made until the discovery of the vein or lode 
within the limits of the claim located. No claim shall extend more 
than three hundred feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the 
surface, nor shall any claim be limited by any mining regulation to 
less than twenty-five feet on each side of the middle of the vein at 
the surface, except where adverse rights existing on the tenth day of 
May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, render such limitation nec¬ 
essary. The end lines of each claim shall be parallel to each other. 

Sec. 2322. The locators of all mining locations heretofore made or Locators; rights 
which shall hereafter be made, on any mineral vein, lode, or ledge, sit- enLyTeX^ 

uated on the public domain, their heirs and assigns, where no adverse- 

claim exists on the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy- 10 May, 1872, c. 
tAvo, so long as they comply with the laws of the United States, and ^^2, s. 3, v. 17, p. 
with State, Territorial, and local regulations not in conflict with the 


3 







4 


Where vei 
intersect, etc. 


10 May, 1872, 
152, S.14, V. 17, 
96. 


laws of the United States governing their possessory title, shall have 
the exclusive right of possession and enjoyment of all the surface 
included within the lines of their locations, and of all veins, lodes, and 
ledges throughout their entire depth, the top or apex of which lies 
inside of sucli surface lines extended downward vertically, although 
such veins, lodes, or ledges may so far depart from a perpendicular in 
their course downward as to extend outside the vertical side lines of 
such surface locations. But their right of possession to such outside 
parts of such veins or ledges shall he confined to such portions 
thereof as lie between vertical planes drawn downward as above 
described, through the end lines of their locations, so continued in 
their own direction that such planes will intersect such exterior parts 
of such veins or ledges. And nothing in this section shall authorize 
the locator or possessor of a vein or lode which extends in its down¬ 
ward course beyond the vertical lines of his claim to enter upon the 
surface of a claim owned or possessed by another. 

18 Sec. 2336. Where two or more veins intersect or cross each other, 
_ priority of title shall govern, and such prior location shall be entitled 
c. to all ore or mineral contained within the space of intersection; but 
p. the subsequent location shall have the right of way through the space 
of intersection for the purposes of the convenient working of the mine. 
And where two or more veins unite, the oldest or prior location shall 
take the vein below the point of union, including all the space of 
intersection. 

CLAIMS LOCATED OE PATENTED PKIOR TO MAY 10, 1872. 

2. The status of lode claims located or patented previous 
to the 10th day of May, 1872, is not changed with regard to 
their extent along the lode or width of surface; but the 
claim is enlarged by sections 2322 and 2328, by investing 
the locator, his heirs or assigns, with the right to follow, 
upon the conditions stated therein, all veins, lodes, or 
ledges, the top or apex of which lies inside of the surface 
lines of his claim. 

3. It is to be distinctly understood, however, that the 
law limits the possessory right to veins, lodes, or ledges, 
other than the one named in the original location, to such 
as were not adversely elaimed on May 10, 1872, and that 
where such other vein or ledge was so adversely claimed 
at that date the right of the party so adversely claiming 
is in no way impaired by the provisions of the Eevised 
Statutes. 

CLAIMS LOCATED SUBSEQUENTLY TO MAY 10, 1872. 

4. From and after the 10th May, 1872, any fierson who 
is a citizen of the United States, or who has declared his 
intention to become a citizen, may locate, record, and hold 
a mining claim of fifteen hundred linear feet along the 
course of any mineral vein or lode subject to location; or 
an association of persons, severally qualified as above, 
may make joint location of such claim of fifteen hundred 
feet, but in no event can a location of a vein or lode made 
subsequent to May 10, 1872, exceed fifteen hundred feet 
along the course thereof, whatever may be the number of 
persons composing the association. 

5. With regard to the extent of surface ground adjoining 
a vein or lode, and claimed for the convenient working 
thereof, the Eevised Statutes provide that the lateral extent 
of locations of veins or lodes made after May 10,1872, shall 



6 


in no case exceed three hundred feet on each side of the mid¬ 
dle of the vein at the surface^ and that no such surface rights 
shall be limited by any mining regulations to less than 
twenty-five feet on each side of the middle of the vein at 
the surface, except where adverse rights existing on the 
10th May, 1872, may render such limitation necessary j the 
end lines of such claims to be in all cases parallel to each 
other. Said lateral measurements can not extend beyond 
three hundred feet on either side of the middle of the vein 
at the surface, or such distance as is allowed by local laws. 
For example: 400 feet can not be taken on one side and 
200 feet on the other. If, however, 300 feet on each side 
are allowed, and by reason of prior claims but 100 feet can 
be taken on one side, the locator will not be restricted to 
less than 300 feet on the other side; and when the locator 
does not determine by exploration where the middle of the 
vein at the surface is, his discovery shaft must be assumed 
to mark such point. 

6. By the foregoing it will be perceived that no lode 
claim located after the 10th May, 1872, can exceed a paral¬ 
lelogram fifteen hundred feet in length by six hundred feet 
in width, but whether surface ground of that width can be 
taken depends upon the local regulations or State or Ter¬ 
ritorial laws in force in the several mining districts; and 
that no such local regulations or State or Territorial laws 
shall limit a vein or lode claim to less than fifteen hundred 
feet along the course thereof, whether the location is made 
by one or more persons, nor can surface rights be limited 
to less than fifty feet in width unless adverse claims exist¬ 
ing on the 10th day of May, 1872, render such latepl lim¬ 
itation necessary. 

7. The rights granted to locators under section 2322, 
Kevised Statutes, are restricted to such locations on veins, 
lodes, or ledges as may be situated on public domain^ 
In applications for lode claims where the survey confiicts 
with the survey or location lines of a prior valid lode claim 
and the ground within the conflicting surveys is excluded, 
the applicant not only has no right to the excluded ground, 
but he has no right to that portion of any vein or lode the 
top or apex of which lies within such excluded ground, 
unless his location was prior to May 10,1872. His right to 
the lode claimed terminates where the lode, in its onward 
course or strike, intersects the exterior boundary of such 
excluded ground and passes within it. The end line of his 
survey should not, therefore, be established beyond such 
intersection. 

8. Where, however, the lode claim for which survey is 
being made was located prior to the conflicting claim, and 
such conflict is to be excluded, in order to include all ground 
not so excluded the end line of the survey may be estab¬ 
lished within the conflicting lode claim, but the line must 
be so run as not to extend any farther into such conflicting 
claim than may be necessary to make such end line parallel 
to the other end line and at the same time embrace the 
ground so held and claimed„ The useless x)ractice in such 
cases of extending both the side lines of a survey into the 


6 


conflicting claim, and establishing an end line wholly within 
it, beyond a point necessary under the rule just stated, will 
be discontinued. 


DESCRIPTION OF CLAIM AND ACTS NECESSARY IN ORDER TO HOLD THE 
SAME—LOCAL RULES AND REGULATIONS. 


Regulation s 
made by }uiners, 

10 May, 1872, c. 
152, s. 5, V. 17, p. 
92. 


Sec. 2324, R. S. The minors of each mining district may make regu¬ 
lations not in conflict with the laws of the United States, or with 
the laws of the State or Territory in which the district is situated, 
governing the location, manner of recording, amount of work neces¬ 
sary to hold possession of a mining claim, subject to the following 
requirements: The location must be distinctly marked on the ground 
so that its boundaries can bo readily traced. All records of mining 
claims hereafter made shall contain the name or names of the locators, 
the date of the location, and such a description of the claim or claims 
located by relerence to some natural oliject or permanent monument 
as will identify the claim. On each claim located after the tenth 
day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, and until a patent 
has been issued therefor, not less than one hundred dollars’ worth of 
labor shall be performed or improvements made during each year. 
On all claims located prior to the tenth day of May, eighteen hun¬ 
dred and seventy-two, ten dollars’ worth of labor shall be performed 
or improvements made by the tenth day of Juno, eighteen hundred 
and seventy-four, and each year thereafter, for each one hundred feet 
in length along the vein until a patent has been issued therefor; but 
where such claims are held in common, such expenditure may bo 
made upon any one claim; and upon a failure to comply with these 
conditions, the claim or mine upon which such failure occurred shall 
be open to relocation in the same manner as if no location of the same 
had ever been made, provided that the original locators, their heirs, 
assigns, or legal representatives, have not resumed work upon the 
claim after failure and before such location. Upon the failure of any 
one of several co-owners to contribute his jiroportion of the expendi¬ 
tures required hereby, the co-owners who have performed the labor 
or made the imjirovemeiits may, at the expiration of the year, give 
such delinquent co-owner personal notice in writing or notice by 
publication in the newspaper published nearest the claim, for at least 
once a week for ninety days, and if at the expiration of ninety days 
after such notice in writing or by publication such delinquent should 
fail or refuse to contribute his proportion of the expenditure required 
by this section, his interest in the claim shall become the property of 
his co-owners who have made the required expenditures. 

Claim located Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
prior to May 10, States of America in Congress assembled, That the provisions of thetifth 
1872, first annual gection of the act entitled “An act to promote the development of the 
tended to'^Jam b resources of the United States,” passed May tenth, eighteen 

1875. ’ hundred and seventy-two, which requires expenditures of labor and 

• —-improvements on claims located prior to the passage of said act, are 

a^d liereby so amended that the time for the first annual expenditure on 

(18 Stat. L., 61 ). claims located prior to the passage of said act shall beextended to the 
first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-five. 

On unpatented That section twenty-three hundred and twenty-four of the Revised 
claims period Statutes of the United States be amended by adding the following 
commences on ^ords: “Provided, the period within which the work required 
date o'tAocatioif annually on all unpatented mineral claims shall commence 

--on the first day of January succeeding the date of location of such 

Act of Congress claim, and this section shall applvtoall claims located since the tenth 

anno Domini eighteen hundred and seventy-two.” 
Description of Sec. 2327, R. S. The description of vein or lode claims, upon sur- 
vein claims on yeyed lands, shall designate the location of the claim with reference 
surveyedlau(^^ the public surveys, but need not conform therewith; 

-:- 1 but where a patent shall be issued for claims upon unsurveyed lands, 

10May, 1872,c. the surveyor-geueral, in extending the surveys, shall adjust the same 
152, 8. 8, V. 17, p. boundaries of such patented claim, according to the plat or 

description thereof, but so as in no case to interfere Avith or change 
the location of any such patented claim. 

9. Locators can not exercise too inucli care in defining 






7 


their locations at the outset, inasmuch as the law requires 
that all records of mining locations made subsequent to 
JMay 10, 1872, shall contain the name or names of the 
locators, the date of the location, and such a description 
of the claim or claims located, by reference to some nat¬ 
ural object or permanent monument, as will identify the 
claim. 

10 . No lode claim shall be located until after the discov¬ 
ery of a vein or lode within the limits of the claim, the object 
of which provision is evidently to prevent the appropriation 
of presumed mineral ground for speculative purposes to 
the exclusion of hona fide lu’ospectors, before sufficient 
work has been done to determine whether a vein or lode 
really exists. 

11. The claimant should, therefore, prior to locating his 
claim, unless the vein can be traced upon the surface, sink 
a shaft, or run a tunnel or drift, to a sufficient depth therein 
to discover and develop a mineral-bearing vein, lode, or 
crevice; should determine, if possible, the general course 
of such vein in either direction from the point of discovery, 
by which direction he will be governed in marking the 
boundaries of his claim on the surface. His location notice 
should give the course and distance as nearly as practicable 
from the discovery shaft on the claim to some permanent, 
well-known points or objects, such, for instance, as stone 
monuments, blazed trees, the confluence of streams, point 
of intersection of well-known gulches, ravines, or roads, 
prominent buttes, hills, etc., which may be in the immedi¬ 
ate vicinity, and which will serve to perpetuate and fix the 
locus of the claim and render it susceptible of identifica¬ 
tion from the description thereof given in the record of 
locations in the district, and should be duly recorded. 

12. In addition to the foregoing data, the claimant should 
state the names of adjoining claims, or, if none adjoin, the 
relative positions of the nearest claims; should drive a post 
or erect a monument of stones at each corner of his surface 
ground, and at the point of discovery or discovery shaft 
should fix a post, stake, or board, upon which should be 
designated the name of the lode, the name or names of the 
locators, the number of feet claimed, and in which direc¬ 
tion from the point of discovery; it being essential that the 
location notice filed for record, in addition to the foregoing 
description, should state whether the entire claim of fifteen 
hundred feet is taken on one side of the point of discovery, 
or whether it is partly upon one and partly upon the other 
side thereof, and in the latter case, how many feet are 
claimed upon each side of such discovery point. 

l.’k The location notice must be filed for record in all 
respects as required by the State or Territorial laws and 
local rules and regulations, if there be any. 

14. In order to hold the possessory title to a mining 
claim located prior to May 10,1872, and for which a patent 
has not been issued, the law requires that ten dollars shall 
be expended annually in labor or improvements on each 
claim of one hundred feet on the course of the vein or lode 


8 


until a patent shall have been issued therefor; but where a 
number of such claims are held in common upon the same 
vein or lode, the aggregate expenditure that would be 
necessary to hold all the claims, at the rate of ten dollars 
X:>er hundred feet, may be made upon any one claim. The 
first annual expenditure upon claims of this class should 
have been performed subsequent to May 10,1872, and prior 
to January 1, 1875. From and after January 1, 1875, the 
required amount must be expended annually until patent 
issues. 

15. In order to hold the possessory right to a location 
made since May 10,1872, not less than one hundred dollars’ 
worth of labor must be performed or improvements made 
thereon annually until entry shall have been made. Under 
the provisions of the act of Congress approved January 
22, 1880, the first annual expenditure becomes due and 
must be performed during the calendar year succeeding 
that in which the location Avas made. Expenditure made 
or labor performed prior to the first day of January suc- 
ceediug the date of location will not be considered as a part 
of or applied upon the first annual exijenditure required 
by law. 

16. Failure to make the expenditure or perform the 
labor required upon a location made before or since May 
10, 1872, Avill subject a claim to relocation, unless the origi¬ 
nal locator, his heirs, assigns, or legal representatives hiive 
resumed work after such failure and before relocation. 

17. Annual expenditure is not required subsequent to 
entry, the date of issuing the patent certificate being the 
date contemplated by statute. 


Eequirement Be it'enacted l)y the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
of ff' States of America in Congress assembled, That the provisions of section 

year Vs 9^4 numbered twenty-three hundred and twenty-fonr of the Revised Stat- 

pended except as utes of the United States, which require that on each claim located 
to South Dakota, after the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, and 
Act of Con- ^i^hl patent has been issued therefor, not less than one hundred dol- 
"ress approved lars’ worth of labor shall be performed or improvements made during 
5nl,v 18, 1894 (28 each year, be suspended for the year eighteen hundred and ninety-four, 
Stat. L., 114). go that no mining claim which has been regularly located and recorded 
as required by the local laws and mining regulations shall be subject 
to forfeiture for nonperformance of the annual assessment for the year 
eighteen hundred and ninety-four: Provided, That the claimant or 
claimants of any mining location, in order to secure the benefits of 
this act, shall cause to be recorded in the office where the location 
notice or certificate is filed, on or before December thirty-first, eighteen 
hundred and ninety-four, a notice that he or they in good fiiith intend 
to hold and work said claim: Provided, /mtrerer. That the provisions 
of this act shall not apply to the State of South Dakota. 

Sec. 2. That this act shall take effect from and after its passage. 


Money expend¬ 
ed in a tunnel 
considered as ex¬ 
pended on the 
lode. 

Act of Con¬ 
gress approved 
February 11,1875 
(18 Stat. L., 315). 


Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled. That section two thousand 
three hundred and twenty-four of the Revised Statutes, be, and the 
same is hereby, amended so that where a person or company has or 
may run a tunnel for the purpose of developing a lode or lodes, owned 
by said person or company, the money so expended in said tunnel shall 
be taken and considered as expended on said lode or lodes, whether 
located prior to or since the passage of said act; and such ])erson or 
company shall not be required to perform work on the surface of said 
lode or lodes in order to hold the same as required by said act. 




9 


18. Upon the failure of any one of several co-owners of a 
vein, lode, or ledge, which has not been entered, to con¬ 
tribute his proportion of the expenditures necessary to 
hold the claim or claims so held in ownership in common, 
the co-owners, who have performed the labor or made the 
imi^rovements as required by said Eevised Statutes, may, 
at the expiration of the year, give such delinquent co-owner 
personal notice in writing, or notice by publication in the 
newspaper published nearest the claim for at least once a 
week for ninety daysj and if upon the expiration of ninety 
days after such notice in writing, or upon the expiration of 
one hundred and eighty days after the first newspaper pub¬ 
lication of notice, the delinquent co-owner shall have failed 
to contribute his proportion to meet such expenditures or 
improvements, his interest in the claim by law passes to 
his co-owners who have made the expenditures or improve¬ 
ments as aforesaid. Where a claimant alleges ownership 
of a forfeited interest under the foregoing provision, the 
sworn statement of the publisher as to the facts of publica¬ 
tion, giving dates and a printed copy of the notice pub¬ 
lished, should be furnished, and the claimant must swear 
that the delinquent co-owner failed to contribute his proper 
proportion within the period fixed by the statute. 

TUNNELS. 

Sec. 2323, R. S. Where a tunnel is rnn for the development of a vein 
or lode, or for the discovery of mines, the owners of snch tunnel shall 
have the right of possession of all veins or lodes within three thonsand 
feet from the face of snch tnnnel on the line thereof, not previonsly 
known to exist, discovered in snch tnnnel, to the same extent as if 
discovered from the surface; and locations on the line of such tunnel 
of veins or lodes not appearing on the surface, made by other parties 
after the commencement of the tunnel, and while the same is being 
prosecuted with reasonable diligence, shall be invalid; but failure to 
prosecute the work on the tnnnel for six months shall be considered 
as an abandonment of the right to all undiscovered veins on the line 
of such tunnel. 

19. The effect of this is simply to give the proprietors of 
a mining tunnel run in good faith the possessory right to 
fifteen hundred feet of any blind lodes cut, discovered, or 
intersected by such tunnel, which were not previously known 
to exist, within three thousand feet from the face or point 
of commencement of such tunnel, and to prohibit other 
parties, after the commencement of the tunnel, from pros¬ 
pecting for and making locations of lodes on the line thereof 
and within said distance of three thousand feet, unless 
such lodes appear upon the surface or were previously 
known to exist. 

20. The term “face,^^ as used in said section, is construed 
and held to mean the first working face formed in the tunnel, 
and to signify the point at which the tunnel actually enters 
cover j it being from this point that the three thousand feet 
are to be counted upon which prospecting is prohibited as 
aforesaid. 

21 . To avail themselves of the benefits of this provision 
of law, the imoprietors of a mining tunnel will be required, 
at the time they enter cover as aforesaid, to give proper 


Owners of tun¬ 
nels, rights of. 


10 May, 1872, c. 
152, 8. 4,v. 17, p 

92. » 



10 


notice of their tunnel location by erecting a substantial 
post, board, or monument at the face or point of commence¬ 
ment thereof, upon which should be posted a good and suffi¬ 
cient notice, giving the names of the parties or company 
claiming the tunnel right; the actual or proposed course or 
direction of the tunnel; the height and width thereof, and 
the course and distance from such face or point of com¬ 
mencement to some permanent well-known objects in the 
vicinity by which to fix and determine the locus in manner 
heretofore set forth applicable to locations of veins or lodes, 
and at the time of posting such notice they shall, in order 
that miners or prospectors may be enabled to determine 
whether or not they are within the lines of the tunnel, estab¬ 
lish the boundary lines thereof, by stakes or monuments 
placed along such lines at proper intervals, to the terminus 
of the three thousand feet from the face or point of com¬ 
mencement of the tunnel, and tlie lines so marked will (fe- 
fine and govern as to the specific boundaries within which 
prospecting for lodes not previously known to exist is pro¬ 
hibited while work on the tunnel is being prosecuted with 
reasonable diligence. 

22 . At the time of posting notice and marking out the 
lines of the tunnel as aforesaid, a full and correct copy of 
such notice of location defining the tunnel claim must be 
filed for record with the mining recorder of the district, to 
which notice must be attached the sworn statement or 
declaration of the owners, claimants, or projectors of such 
tunnel, setting forth the facts in the case; stating the 
amount expended by themselves and their predecessors in 
interest in prosecuting work thereon; the extent of the 
work performed, and that it is hona fide their intention to 
prosecute work on the tunnel so located and described with 
reasonable diligence for the development of a vein or lode, 
or for the discovery of mines, or both, as the case may be. 
This notice of location must be duly recorded, and, with 
the said sworn statement attached, kept on the recorder’s 
files for future reference. 

23. By a compliance with the foregoing much needless 
difficulty will be avoided, and the way for the adjustment 
of legal rights acquired in virtue of said section 2323 will 
be made much more easy and certain. 

24. This office will take particular care that no improper 
advantage is taken of this provision of law by parties 
making or professing to make tunnel locations, ostensibly 
for the purposes named in the statute, but really for the 
purpose of monopolizing the lands lying in front of their 
tunnels to the detriment of the mining interests and to the 
exclusion of honafide prospectors or miners, but will hold 
such tunnel claimants to a strict compliance with the terms 
of the statutes; and a reasonable diligence on their part in 
prosecuting the work is one of the essential conditions of 
their implied contract. Negligence or want of due dili¬ 
gence will be construed as working a forfeiture of their' 
right to all undiscovered veins on the line of such tunnel. 


11 


PLACERS. 


Sec. 2.329, R. S. Claims usually called placers,’including all forms Conformity of 
of deposit, excepting veins of quartz, or other rock in place, shall be claims to 
subject to entry and patent, under like circumstances and conditions, o . 

ami upon similar proceedings, as are provided for vein or lode claims; 9 July, 1870, c. 
but where the lands have been previously surveyed by the United 235,8.12, v.ifi, p. 
States, the entry in its exterior limits shall conform to the legal sub- 
divisions of the public lands. 

Sec. 2330. Legal subdivisions of forty acres may be subdivided into Subdivisions of 
ten-acre tracts; and two or more persons, or associations of persons, ten-acre tracts, 
liaving contiguous claims of any size, although such claims may be 

less than ten acres each, may make joint entry thereof ; but no loca--^- 

tion of a placer claim, made after the ninth day of July, eisrhteen 9 July, 1870, c. 

hundred and seventy, shall exceed one hundred and sixty acres for 2 ^^ 

any one person or association of persons, which location shall conform 

to the United States surveys; and nothing in this section contained 

shall defeat or impair any bona fide preemption or homestead claim 

upon agricultural lands, or authorize the sale of the improvements of 

any bona fide settler to any purchaser. 

Sec. 2331. Where placer claims are upon surveyed lands, and con- Conformity of 
form to legal subdivisions, no further survey or plat shall be required, 
and all placer-mining claims located after the tenth day of May, tiou of claims. 

eighteen hundred and seventy-two, shall conform as near as practica--;;- 

ble with the United States system of public-land surveys, and ^ 7 ^’ 

rectangular subdivisions of such surveys, and no such location shall g^ ’ s. ,v. , p. 

include more than twenty acres for each individual claimant; but 
where placer claims can not be conformed to legal subdivisions, sur¬ 
vey and plat shall be made as on unsurveyed lauds; and where by the 
segregation of mineral lands in any legal subdivision a quantity of 
agricultural land less than forty acres remains, such fractional portion 
of agricultural land may be entered by any party qualified by law, 
for homestead or preemption purposes. 


25. But one discovery of miueral is required to support 
a placer location, whether it be of twenty acres by an 
individual, or of one hundred and sixty acres or less by an 
association of persons. 


BUILDING STONE. 

Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives of the United Entry of lands 
States of America in Congress assembled, I'hat any person authorized to f o”/ifu Tfd fn g 
enter lands under the mining laws of the United States may enter under the 
lands that are chiefly valuable for building stone under the provi- placer-mining 
sions of the law in relation to placer-mineral claims: Provided, ThatU'^^s- 
lands reserved for the benefit of the public schools or donated to any 
State shall not be subject to entry under this act. gress approved, 

August 4, 1892 

2G. This act extends the mineral-laud laws so as to bring (27 stat. l. 348). 
lands chiefly valuable for building stone within the provi¬ 
sions of said law by authorizing a placer entry of such 
lands. It does not operate, however, to withdraw lands 
chiefly valuable for building stone from entry under any 
existing law applicable thereto. Registers and receivers 
should therefore make a reference to said act on the entry . 
papers in the case of all placer entries made for lands con¬ 
taining stone chiefly valuable for building purposes. It 
will be noted that lands reserved for the benefit of public 
schools or donated to any State are not subject to entry 
under said act. 






12 


PETROLEUM AND OTHER MINERAL OILS. 


Entry and pat- Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
contamin^" ^fuerica in Congress assembled, That any person authorized to 

lennf^Tmf ^^her ^^ter lands under the mining laws of the United States may enter and 
mineral oi 1 s obtain x>atent to lands, containing petroleum or other mineral oils, 
nnderthe placer- and chiefly valuable therefor, under the jirovisions of the laws relat- 
mininglaws. jjjg placer mineral claims: Frovided, That lands containing such 

Act of Con- petroleum or other mineral oils which have heretofore been filed upon, 
gress approved, claimed, or improved as mineral, but not yet patented, may be held 
Eebniary 11.1897 jiatented under the provisions of this act the same as if such fil- 

1 btat. .,0 ). claim, or improvement were subsequent to the date of the passage 

hereof. 

27. It is to be observed that the provisions of the mineral 
laws relating to placers are by said act extended so as to 
allow the location and entry thereunder of public lands 
chiefly valuable for petroleum or other mineral oils, and 
entries of that nature made prior to the passage of said 
act are to be considered as though made thereunder. 

28. By section 2330 authority is given for the subdivision 
of forty-acre legal subdivisions into ten-acre lots, which is 
intended for the greater convenience of miners in segre¬ 
gating their claims both from one another and from inter¬ 
vening agricultural lands. 

29. It is held, therefore, that under a proper construction 
of the law these ten-acre lots in mining districts should be 
considered and dealt with, to all intents and purjxoses, as 
legal subdivisions, and that an applicant having a legal 
claim which conforms to one or more of these ten-acre lots, 
either adjoining or cornering, may make entry thereof, after 
the usual proceedings, without farther survey or plat. 

30. In cases of this kind, however, the notice given of 
the application must be very specific and accurate in descrip¬ 
tion, and as the forty-acre tracts may be subdivided into 
ten acre lots, either in the form of squares of ten by ten 
chains, or, if parallelograms, five by twenty chains, so long 
as the lines are parallel and at right angles with the lines 
of the public surveys, it will be necessary that the notice 
and application state specifically what ten-acre lots are 
sought to be patented in addition to the other data required 
in the notice. 


31. Where the ten-acre subdivision is in the form of a 
square it may be described, for instance, as the SE. J of the 
b W.^ of NW. or, if in the form of a iiarallelogram as afore¬ 
said, it may be described as the “ W. ^ of the W. A of the S W 
1 of the N W. 1 (or the N. J of the S. J of the NE. i of the SE. i) 

ot section-, township-, range-as the 

case maybe; but, in addition to this description of the 
land, the notice must give all the other data that is required 
in a mineral application, by which parties may be iiut on 
inquiry as to the premises sought to be patented. The 
proofs submitted with applications for claims of this kind 
must show clearly the character and the extent of the 
improvements upon the premises. 

The proof of improvements must show their value to be 
not less thaiu;^re hundred dollars and that they were made 
by the applicant for patent or his grantors. The annual 
expenditure to the amount of $100, required by section 






13 


2324, Eevised Statutes, must be made upon placer claims 
as well as lode claims. 

32. Applicants for patent to a placer claim, who are also 
in possession of a known vein or lode included therein, 
must state in their application that the placer includes 
such vein or lode. The published and posted notices must 
also include such statement. If veins or lodes lying within 
a placer location are owned by other parties, the fact 
should be distinctly stated in the application for patent, 
and in all the notices. But in all cases whether the lode 
is claimed or excluded, it must be surveyed and marked 
upon the platj the field notes and plat giving the area of 
the lode claim or claims and the area of the placer sep¬ 
arately. It should be remembered that an application 
which omits to include an application for a known vein or 
lode therein, must be construed as a conclusive declaration 
that the applicant has no right of possession to the vein 
or lode. Where there is no known lode or vein, the fact 
must appear by the affidavit of two or more witnesses. 

33. By section 2330 it is declared that no location of a 
placer claim, made after July 9, 1870, shall exceed one 
hundred and sixty acres for any one person or association 
of persons, which location shall conform to the United 
States surveys. 

34. Section 2331 provides that all placer-mining claims 
located after May 10,1872, shall conform as nearly as prac¬ 
ticable with the United States systems of imblic surveys 
and the subdivisions of such surveys, and no such locations 
shall include more than twenty acres for each individual 
claimant. 

35. The foregoing provisions of law are construed to 
mean that after the 9th day of July, 1870, no location of a 
placer claim can be made to exceed one hundred and sixty 
acres, whatever may be the number of locators associated 
together, or whatever the local regulations of the district 
may allow; and that from and after May 10,1872, no loca¬ 
tion can exceed twenty acres for each individual partici¬ 
pating therein; that is, a location by two persons can not 
exceed forty acres, and one by three persons can not exceed 
sixty acres. 

36. The regulations hereinbefore given as to the manner 
of marking locations on the ground, and placing the same 
on record, must be observed in the case of placer locations 
so far as the same are applicable, the law requiring, how¬ 
ever, that where placer claims are upon surveyed public 
lands the locations must hereafter be made to conform to 
legal subdivisions thereof as near as practicable. 

PROCEDURE TO OBTAIN PATENT TO MINERAL LANDS. 

Sec. 2325, R. S. A patent for any land claimed and located for vain- Patents for 
able deposits may be obtained in the following manner: Any person, lands, 

association, or corporation authorized to locate a claim under this ”®^® 
chapter, having claimed and located a piece of land for such purposes, lo May, 1872, c. 
w ho has, or have, complied with the terms of this chapter, may file in 152, s. 6, v. 17, p. 
the proper land office an application for a patent, under oath, show- 
ing such compliance, together with a plat and field notes of the claim 
or claims in common, made by or under the direction of the United 



14 


States surveyor-general, showing accurately the boundaries of the 
claim or claims, which shall be distinctly marked by monuments on 
the ground, and shall post a copy of such plat, together with a notice 
of such application for a patent, in a conspicuous place on the land 
embraced in such plat previous to the filing of the application for a 
patent, and shall file an affidavit of at least two persons that such 
notice has been duly posted, and shall file a copy of the notice in such 
laud office, and shall thereupon be entitled to a patent for the land, in 
the manner following: The register of the laud office, upon the filing 
of such application, plat, field notes, notices, and affidavits, shall pub¬ 
lish a notice that such application has been made, for the period of 
sixty days, in a newspaper to be by him designated as published near¬ 
est to such claim; and he shall also post such notice in his office for 
the same period. The claimant at the time of filing this application, 
or at any time thereafter, within the sixty days of publication, shall 
file with the register a certificate of the United States surveyor-general 
' that fi ve h undred dollars’ worth of labor has been expended or improve¬ 

ments made upon the claim by himself or grantors; that the plat is 
correct, with such further description by such reference to natural 
objects or permanent monuments as shall identify the claim, and fur¬ 
nish an accurate description, to be incorporated in the patent. At 
the expiration of the sixty days of jniblication the claimant shall file 
his affidavit, showing that the plat and notice have been posted in a 
conspicuous place on the claim during such period of publication. If 
no adverse claim shall have been filed with the register and the 
receiver of the 7 )roper land office at the expiration of the sixty days 
of publication, it shall be assumed that the applicant is entitled to a 
patent, uiion the payment to the proper officer of five dollars per acre, 

. and that no adverse claim exists; and thereafter no objection from 
patent ^m^av” be parties to the issuance of a patent shall be heard, except it be 

inade by aiUhor- shown that the applicant has failed to comply with the terms of this 
ized agent. chapter. 

Sec.i. ActCon- Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Bepresentaiives of the United 
Januarv^2^T880 ^i'^^erica in Conyress assembled, That section twenty-three hun- 

(21 Stat. U,’ 61). dred and twenty-five of the Revised Statutes of the United States be 
amended by adding thereto the following words: ^‘Provided, That 
where the claimant for a patent is not a resident of or within the laud 
district wherein the vein, lode, ledge, or deposit sought to be patented 
is located, the application for patent and the affidavits required to be 
made in this section by the claimant for such iiateut may be made by 
his, her, or its authorized agent, where said agent is conversant with 
the facts sought to be established by said affidavits: And provided, 
That this section shall apply to all applications now pending for patents 
to mineral lands.” 

Pendingappli- Sec. 2328. A])plications for patents for mining claims under former 
cations; existing laws now pending may be prosecuted to a final decision in the General 
_Land Office; but in such cases where adverse rights are not affected 

10 May, 1872, c. patents may issue in pursuance of the provisions of this 

152, 8. 9, V. 17,’ p. chapter; and all patents for mining claims upon veins or lodes hereto- 
^4. fore issued shall convey all the rights and privileges conferred by this 

chapter where no adverse rights existed on the tenth day of May, 
eighteen hundred and seventy-two. 

37. As a condition for the making of apiilication for 
patent according to section 2325, there must be a prelimi¬ 
nary showing of work or expenditure upon each location, 
either by showing the full amount sufficient to the mainte¬ 
nance of possession under section 2324 for the pending 
year; or, if there has been failure, it should be shown that 
work has been resumed so as to prevent relocation by 
adverse parties after abandonment. 

The ‘Spending year” means the calendar year in which 
application is made, and has no reference to a showing of 
work at date of the final entry. 

38. This preliminary showing may, where the matter is 
unquestioned, consist of the affidavit of two or more wit¬ 
nesses familiar with the facts. 






15 


LODE CLAIM. 

39. The claiiuaut is required, in the first place, to have a 
correct survey of his claim made under authority of the 
surveyor-general of the State or Territory in which the 
claim lies, such survey to show with accuracy the exterior 
surface boundaries of the claim, which boundaries are 
required to be distinctly marked by monuments on the 
ground. Four plats and one copy of the original field 
notes in each case will be prepared by the surveyor-gen- 
eralj one plat and the original field notes to be retained in 
the office of the surveyor-general, one copy of the plat to 
be given the claimant for posting upon the claim, one plat 
and a copy of the field notes to be given the claimant for 
filing with the proper register, to be finally transmitted by 
that officer, with other papers in the case, to this office, and 
one plat to be sent by the surveyor-general to the register 
of the proper land district, to be retained on his files for 
future reference. As there is no resident surveyor-general 
for the State of Arkansas, applications for the survey of 
mineral claims in said State should be made to the Com¬ 
missioner of this office, who, under the law, is ex officio the 
U. S. surveyor-general. 

40. The survey and plat of mineral claims required to be 
filed in the proper land office with application for patent 
must be made subsequent to the recording of the location 
of the mine; and when the original location is made by 
survey of a United States deputy surveyor such location 
survey can not be substituted for that required by the stat¬ 
ute, as above indicated. 

DIRECTIONS FOR PREPARING^ PLAT. 

41. The surveyors-general should designate all surveyed 
mineral claims by a jirogressive series of numbers, begin¬ 
ning with survey No. 37, irrespective as to whether they 
are situated on surveyed or unsurveyed lands, the claim to 
be so designated at date of issuing the order therefor, in 
addition to the local designation of the claim; it being 
required in all cases that the plat and field notes of the 
survey of a claim must, in addition to the reference to per¬ 
manent objects in the neighborhood, describe the locus of 
the claim, with reference to the lines of public surveys, by 
a line connecting a corner of the claim with the nearest 
public corner of the United States surveys, unless such 
claim be on unsurveyed lands at a distance of more than 
two miles from such public corner, in which latter case it 
should be connected with a United States mineral monu¬ 
ment. Such connecting line must not be more than ttvo 
miles in length and should be measured on the ground 
direct between the points, or calculated from actually sur¬ 
veyed traverse lines if the nature of the country should 
not permit direct measurement. If a regularly established 
survey corner is within two miles of a claim situated on 
unsurveyed lands the connection should be made with such 
corner in preference to a connection with a United States 


16 


mineral monument. The connecting line must be surveyed 
by the deputy mineral surveyor at the time of his making 
the particular survey and be made a part thereof. 

42. Upon the approval of the survey of a mining claim 
made upon surveyed lands the surveyor-general will pre¬ 
pare and transmit to the local land office and to this office 
a diagram tracing showing the portions of legal 40-acre 
subdivisions made fractional by reason of the mineral sur¬ 
vey, designating each of such portions by the proper lot 
number, beginning with No. 1 in each section, and giving 
the area of each lot. 

43. The following particulars should be observed in the 
survey of every mining claim: 

(1) The exterior boundaries of the claim should be rep¬ 
resented on the plat of survey and in the field notes. 

(2) The intersection of the lines of the survey with the 
lines of conflicting prior surveys should be noted in the 
field notes and represented upon the plat. 

(3) Conflicts with unsurveyed claims, where the applicant 
for survey does not claim the area in conflict, should be 
shown by actual survey. 

(4) The total area of the claim embraced by the exterior 
boundaries should be stated, and also the area in conflict 
with each intersecting survey, substantially as follows: 

Acres. 

Total area of claim. 10.50 

Area in conflict with survey No. 302. 1. 56 

Area in conflict with survey No. 948. 2.33 

Area in conflict with Mountain Maid lode mining claim, unsur¬ 
veyed . 1.48 

It does not follow that because mining surveys are required 
to exhibit all conflicts with prior surveys the areas of con¬ 
flict are to be excluded. The field notes and plat are made 
a part of the application for patent, and care should be 
taken that the description does not inadvertently exclude 
portions intended to be retained. It is better that the 
application for patent should state the portions to be 
excluded in express terms. 


44. The claimant is then required to post a copy of the plat 
of such survey in a conspicuous place upon the claim, 
together with notice of his intention to apply for a patent 
therefor, which notice will give the date of posting, the 
name of the claimant, the name of the claim; the mining 
district and county; whether or not the location is of rec¬ 
ord, and, if so, where the record may be found, giving the 
book and page thereof; the number of feet claimed along 
the vein and the presumed direction thereof; the number 
of feet claimed on the lode in each direction from the point 
of discovery or other well-defined place on the claim; the 
names of all adjoining and conflicting claims, or, if none 
exist, the notice should so state. 

45. After posting the said plat and notice ui^on the prem¬ 
ises, the claimant Avill file with the proper register and 
receiver a copy of such plat and the field notes of survey of 








17 


the claim, accompanied by the affidavit of at least two 
credible witnesses that such plat and notice are posted 
conspicuously upon the claim, giving the date and place of 
such postingj a copy of the notice so i)osted to be attached 
to and form a part of said affidavit. The plat forwarded 
as part of the proof should not be folded, but rolled, so as 
to prevent creasing, and either transmitted in a separate 
package or so enclosed with the other i)apers that it may 
pass through the mails without creasing or mutilation. If 
forwarded separately, the letter transmitting the papers 
should state the fact. 

46. Accompanying the field notes so filed must be the 
sworn statement of the claimant that he has the possessory 
right to the premises therein described, in virtue of a com¬ 
pliance by himself (and by his grantors, if he claims by 
purchase) with the mining rules, regulations, and customs 
of the mining district, State, or Territory in which the 
claim lies, and with the mining laws of Congress; such 
sworn statement to narrate briefly, but as clearly as pos¬ 
sible, the facts constituting such compliance, the origin of 
his possession, and the basis of his claim to a patent. 

47. This sworn statement must be supported by a copy 
of the location notice, certified by the officer in charge of 
the records where the same is recorded, and where the ap- 
I)licant for patent claims the interests of others associated 
with him in making the location, or only as purchaser, in 
addition to the copy of the location notice, must be fur¬ 
nished a complete abstract of title as shown by the record 
in the office where the transfers are by law required to be 
recorded, certified to by the officer in charge of the record, 
under his official seal. The officer should also certify that 
no conveyances afiecting the title to the claim in question 
appear of record other than those set forth in the abstract, 
which abstract shall be brought down to the date of the 
application for patent. Where the applicant claims as sole 
locator, his affidavit should be furnished to the efiect that 
he has disposed of no interest in the land located. 

48. In the event of the mining records in any case hav¬ 
ing been destroyed by fire or otherwise lost, affidavit of the 
fact should be made, and secondary evidence of possessory 
title will be received, which may consist of the affidavit of 
the claimant, supported by those of any other parties cog¬ 
nizant of the facts relative to his location, occupancy, 
possession, improvements, &c.; and in such case of lost 
records, any deeds, certificates of location or purchase, or 
other evidence which may be in the claimant’s possession 
and tend to establish his claim, should be filed. 

4fi. Before receiving and filing a mineral application for 
patent, local officers will be particular to see that it includes 
no land which is embraced in a prior or pending applica¬ 
tion for patent or entry, or for any lands embraced in a 
railroad selection, or for which publication is pending or 
has been made by any other claimants, and if, in their 
opinion, after investigation, it should appear that a min¬ 
eral application should not, for these or other reasons, be 
accepted and filed, they should formally reject the same, 
10103-2 



18 


giving the reasons therefor, and allow the applicant thirty 
days for apj)eal to this office under the Kules of Practice. 

50. Upon the receipt of these papers, if no reason 
appears for rejecting the application, the register will, at 
the expense of the claimant (who must furnish the agree¬ 
ment of the publisher to hold applicant for patent alone 
responsible for charges of publication), publish a notice of 
such application for the period of sixty days in a news¬ 
paper published nearest to the claim, and will ijost a copy 
of such notice in his office for the same period. When the 
notice is published in a weekly newspaper, ten consecutive 
insertions are necessary; when in a daily newspaper, the 
notice must appear in each issue for sixty-one consecutive 
issues, the first day of issue being excluded in estimating 
the period of sixty days. 

51. The notices so published and posted must be as full 
and complete as possible, and embrace all the data given 
in the notice posted upon the claim. Too much care can 
not be exercised in the preparation of these notices, inas¬ 
much as upon their accuracy and completeness will depend, 
in a great measure, the regularity and validity of the whole 
l)roceeding. 

52. The register shall publish the notice of application 
for patent in a i)aper of established character and general 
circulation, to be by him designated as being the newspa¬ 
per published nearest the land. 

53. The claimant, either at the time of filing these papers 
with the register or at any time during the sixty days^ pub¬ 
lication, is required to file a certificate of the surveyor- 
general that not less than five hundred dollars’ worth of 
labor has been expended or improvements made upon the 
claim, and if more than one claim is included in the aj)pli- 
cation, that an amount equal to five hundred dollars for 
each claim has been expended by the applicant or his 
grantors; that the plat filed by the claimant is correct; 
that the field notes of the survey, as filed, furnish such 
an accurate description of the claim as will, if incorporated 
into a patent, serve to fully identify the premises, and that 
such reference is made therein to natural objects or per¬ 
manent monuments as will perpetuate and fix the locus 
thereof. 

51. The surveyor-general should derive his information 
upon which to base his certificate as to the value of labor 
expended or improvements made from his deputy who 
makes the actual survey and examination upon the prem¬ 
ises, and such deputy should specify with particularity and 
full detail the character and extent of such improvements. 

55. It will be the more convenient way to have this cer¬ 
tificate indorsed by the surveyor-general, both upon the 
plat and field notes of survey filed by the claimant as afore¬ 
said. 

56. After the sixty days’ period of newspaper publication 
has expired, the claimant will furnish from the office of pub¬ 
lication a sworn statement that the notice was published 
for the statutory period, giving the first and last day of 
such publication, and his own affidavit showing that the 



19 


plat and notice aforesaid remained conspicuously posted 
upon the claim sought to be patented during said sixty days’ 
publication, giving the dates. 

57. Upon the filing of this affidavit the register will, if 
no adverse claim was filed in his office during the period of 
publication, permit the claimant to pay for the land accord¬ 
ing to the area given in the plat and field notes of survey 
aforesaid, at the rate of five dollars for each acre and five 
dollars for each fractional part of an acre, except as other¬ 
wise provided by law, the receiver issuing the usual dupli¬ 
cate receipt therefor. The claimant will also make a sworn 
statement of all charges and fees paid by him for publica¬ 
tion and surveys, together with all fees and money paid the 
register and receiver of the land office, after which the com¬ 
plete record will be forwarded to the Commissioner of the 
General Land Office and a patent issued thereon if found 
regular. 

PROTEST. 

58. At any time prior to the issuance of patent, protest 
may be filed against the patenting of the claim as applied 
for, upon any ground tending to show that the applicant 
has failed to comply with the law in a matter which would 
avoid the claim. Such protest can not, however, be made 
the means of preserving a surface conflict lost by failure to 
adverse or lost by the judgment of the court in an adverse 
suit. One holding a present joint interest in a mineral 
location included in an application for patent who is 
excluded from the application, so that his interest would 
not be protected by the issue of patent thereon, may pro¬ 
test against the issuance of a patent as api3lied for, setting 
forth in such protest the nature and extent of his interest 
in such location, and such a protestant will be deemed a 
party in interest entitled to appeal. This results from the 
holding that a coo'wner excluded from an application for 
patent does not have an “adverse” claim within the mean¬ 
ing of sections 2325 and 2326 of the Eevised Statutes. See 
Turner v. Sawyer, 150 U. S., 578-586. 

59. Any party applying to make entry as trustee must 
disclose fully the nature of the trust and the name of the 
cestui que trust; and such trustee, as well as the benefi¬ 
ciaries, must furnish satisfactory proof of citizenship; and 
the names of beneficiaries, as well as that of the trustee, 
must be inserted in the final certificate of entry. 

PLACERS. 

60. The proceedings to obtain patents for claims usually 
called placers, including all forms of deposit, excepting 
v^ins of quartz or other rock in place, are.similar to the 
proceedings prescribed for obtaining patents for vein or lode 
claims; but where said placer claim shall be upon surveyed 
lauds, and conforms to legal subdivisions, no further survey 
or plat will be required; and all placer mining claims lo¬ 
cated after May 10,1872, shall conform as nearly as practi¬ 
cable with the United States system of public-land surveys 


20 


and tlie rectangular subdivisions of such surveys^ and no 
such location shall include more than twenty acres for each 
individual claimant; but where placer claims can not be 
conformed to legal subdivisions, survey and plat shall be 
made as on unsurveyed lands. But where such claims are 
located previous to the public surveys, and do not conform 
to legal subdivisions, survey, plat, and entry thereof may 
be made according to the boundaries thereof, provided the 
location is in all respects legal. 

61. The proceedings for obtaining x)atents for veins or 
lodes having already been fully given, it will not be neces¬ 
sary to repeat them here, it being thought that careful 
attention thereto by applicants and the local officers will 
enable them to act understandingly in the matter and make 
such slight modifications in the notice, or otherwise, as may 
be necessary in view of the different nature of the two 
classes of claims; placer claims being fixed, however, at 
two dollars and fifty cents per acre, or fractional part of an 
acre. 

Proceedings for Sec. 2333, R. S. Where the same person, association, or corporation 
cl^^im^etc possession of a placer claim, and also a vein or lode included 

__ ' _■within the boundaries thereof, application shall be made for a patent 

10 May, 1872, c. for the placer claim, with the statement that it includes such vein or 
152, s. 11, V. 17, p. lode, and in such case a patent shall issue for the placer claim, subject 
* to the provisions of this chapter, including such vein or lode, upon 

the payment of live dollars per acre for such vein or lode claim, and 
twenty-five feet of surface on each side thereof. The remainder of 
the placer claim, or any placer claim not embracing any vein or lode 
claim, shall be paid for at the rate of two dollars and fifty cents per 
acre, together with all costs of proceedings; and where a vein or lode, 
sueh as is described in section twenty-three hundred and twenty, is 
known to exist within the boundaries of a placer claim, an applica¬ 
tion for a patent for such placer claim which does not include an 
application for the vein or lode claim shall be construed as a conclu¬ 
sive declaration that the claimant of the placer claim has no right of 
posst'ssion of the vein or lode claim; but where the existence of a vein 
or lode in a placer claim is not known, a patent for the placer claim 
shall convey all valuable mineral and other deposits within the bound¬ 
aries thereof. 

62. The first care in recognizing an application for patent 
upon a placer claim must be exercised in determining the 
exact classification of the lands. To this.end the clearest 
evidence of which the case is capable should be presented. 

(1) If the claim be all placer ground, that fact^nust be 
stated in the application and corroborated by accompany¬ 
ing proofs; if of mixed placers and lodes, it should be so 
set out, with a description of all known lodes situated 
within the boundaries of the claim. A specific declaration, 
such as is required by section 2333, Eevised Statutes, must 
be furnished as to each lode intended to be claimed. All 
other known lodes are, by the silence of the applicant, 
excluded by law from all claim by him, of whatsoever nature, 
possessory or otherwise. 

(2) Deputy surveyors shall, at the expense of the parties, 
make full examination of all placer claims surveyed by 
them, and duly note the facts as specified in the law, stat¬ 
ing the quality and composition of the soil, the kind and 
amount of timber and other vegetation, the locus and size 
of streams, and such other matters as may appear upon 





21 


the surface of the claim. This examination should include 
the character and extent ot all surface and underground 
workings, whether jdacer or lode, for mining purposes. 

(o) In addition to these data, which the law requires to 
be shown in all cases, the deputy should report with ref¬ 
erence to the proximity of centers of trade or residence; 
also of well-known systems of lode deposit or of individual 
lodes. He should also report as to the use or adaptability 
of the claim for placer mining; whether water has been 
brought upon it in sufficient quantity to mine the same, or 
whether it can be procured for that purpose; and, finally, 
what works or expenditures have been made by the claim¬ 
ant or his grantors for the development of the claim, and 
their situation and location with respect to the same as 
applied for. 

(4) This examination should be reported by the deputy 
under oath to the surveyor-general, and duly corroborated; 
and a copy of the same should be furnished Avith the appli¬ 
cation for patent to the claim, constituting a part thereof, 
and included in the oath of the applicant. 

(5) Apxfiications awaiting entr^q whether imblished or 
not, must be made to conform to these regulations, with 
respect to examination as to the character of the land. 

Entries already made will be suspended for such additional 
proofs as may be deemed necessary in each case. 

MILL SITES. 

03. Mill sites are not mineral entries., On the contrary,the 
land entered must be shown to be nonmineral. They are 
simply auxiliary to the working of mineral claims, but as 
the section granting the right of entry is embraced in the 
chapter of the lievised Statutes relating to mineral lands, 
they are therefore included in this circular. 

Sec. 2337, R. S. Where noumineral land not contiguous to the vein Patents for 
or lode is used or occupied by the proprietor of such vein or lode for uo nm i neral 

mining or milling purposes, such nouadjacent surface ground may be etc. _ 

embraced and included in an application for a patent for such vein or lo May, 1872, c. 

lode, and the same may be patented therewith, subject to the same 152, s. 15, v. 17, p. 

preliminary requirements as to survey and notice as are applicable to 

veins or lodes; but no location hereafter made of such nouadjacent 

land shall exceed five acres, and payment for the same must be made 

at the same rate as fixed by this chapter for the superficies of the lode. 

The owner of a quartz mill or reduction works, not owning a mine in 
connection therewith, may also receive a patent for his mill site, as 
provided in this section. 

G4. To avail themselves of this provision of law parties 
holding the possessory right to a vein or lode, and to a 
piece of noumineral land not contiguous thereto, for min¬ 
ing or milling jiurposes, not exceeding the quantity allowed 
for such purpose by section 2337, United States Kevised 
Statutes, or prior laws, under which the land was appro¬ 
priated, the firoprietors of such vein or lode may file in the 
proper land office their application for a patent, under oath, 
in manner already set foith herein, which application, 
together with the plat and field notes, may include, embrace, 
and describe, in addition to the yein or lode, such noncon¬ 
tiguous mill site, and after due i)roeeedings as to notice, 



22 


etc., a patent will be issued conveying tbe same as one 
claim. The owner of a patented lode may, by an independ¬ 
ent application, secure a mill site if good faith is manifest 
in its use or occupation in connection with the lode and 
no adverse claim exists. 

G5. Where the original survey includes a lode claim and 
also a mill site the lode claim should be described in the 
plat and field notes as “Sur. Ko. 37, A,” and the mill site 
as “Sur. No. 37, B,” or whatever may be its appropriate 
numerical designation j the course and distance from a 
corner of the mill site to a corner of the lode claim to be 
invariably given in such plat and field notes, and a copy of 
the plat and notice of application for i)atent must be con¬ 
spicuously posted upon the mill site as well as upon the 
vein or lode for the statutory x^eriod of sixty days. In 
making the entry no separate receipt or certificate need be 
issued for the mill site, but the whole area of both lode and 
mill site will be embraced in one entry, the x)rice being five 
dollars for each acre and fractional part of an acre embraced 
by such lode and mill-site claim. 

66 . In case the owner of a quartz mill or reduction works 
is not the owner or claimant of a vein or lode the law x>er- 
mits him to make application therefor in the same manner 
X^rescribed herein for mining claims, and after due notice 
and proceedings, in the absence of a valid adverse filing, 
to enter and receive a patent for his mill site at said price 
X)er acre. 

67. In every case there must be satisfactory x>roof that 
the land claimed as a mill site is not mineral in character, 
which x^roof may, where the matter is unquestioned, consist 
of the sworn statement of two or more x^ersons capable, from 
acquaintance with the land, to testify understandingly. 

PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP. 

Proof of citi- Sec. 2321, R. S. Proof of citizenship, under this chapter, may con- 

zfiKship. _Qa^gQ Qf an individual, of his own affidavit thereof; in the 

10 May, 1872, c. case of an association of persons unincorporated, of the affidavit of 
152, 8. 7,‘v. 17, ’p. their authorized agent, made on his owu knowledge or upon informa- 
94- tion and belief; and in the case of a corporation organized under the 

laws of the United States, or of any State or Territory thereof, by the 
filing of a certified copy of their charter or certificate of incorporation. 

68 . The proof necessary to establish the citizenship of 
applicants for mining patents must be made in the follow¬ 
ing manner: In case of an incorporated company, a certi¬ 
fied copy of their charter or certificate of incorporation 
must be filed. In case of an association of persons unin¬ 
corporated, the affidavit of their duly authorized agent, 
made uxion his own knowledge or upon information and 
belief, setting forth the residence of each person forming 
such association, must be submitted. This afhdavit must 
be accompanied by a power of attorney from the parties 
forming such association, authorizing the person who makes 
the affidavit of citizenshix) to act for them in the matter of 
their apxilication for patent. 

69. In case of an individual or an association of indi¬ 
viduals who do not appear by their duly authorized agent, 




23 


you will require the affidavit of each applicant, showing 
whether he is a native or naturalized citizen, when and 
where born, and his residence. 

70. In case an applicant has declared his intention to 
become a citizen or has been naturalized, his affidavit must 
show the date, i)lace, and the court before which he declared 
his intention, or from which his certificate of citizenship 
issued, and present residence. 

71. The affidavit of the claimant as to his citizenship 
may be taken before the register or receiver, or any other 
officer authorized to administer oaths within the land dis¬ 
trict; or, if the claimant is residing beyond the limits of 
the district, the affidavit may be taken before the clerk of 
any court of record or before any notary public of any 
State or Territory. 

72. If citizenship is established by the testimony of dis¬ 
interested persons, such testimony may be taken at any 
place before any person authorized to administer oaths, and 
whose official character is duly verified. 

73. In sending up the papers in the case the register 
must not omit certifying to the fact that the notice was 
posted in his office for the full period of sixty days, such 
certificate to state distinctly when such posting was done 
and how long continued. 

74. Ho entry will be allowed until the register has satis¬ 
fied himself, by a careful examination, that proper proofs 
have been filed upon all the points indicated in official reg¬ 
ulations in force, and that they show a sufficient honajide 
compliance with the laws and such regulations. 

75. The consecutive series of numbers of mineral entries 
must be continued, whether the same are of lode or i^lacer 
claims or mill sites. 

POSSESSORY RIGHT. 

Sec. 2332, R. S. Where such person or association, they and 
grantors, have held and worked their claims for a period equal to the to^establish 

time prescribed by the statute of limitations for mining claims of the a right to a pat- 
State or Territory where the same may be situated, evidence of such ent- 
possession and working of the claims for such period shall be suffi- 9 juiy i870 c 
cient to establish a right to a patent thereto under this chapter, in the 235 , s. 13, v. 16| p! 
absence of any adverse claim; but nothing in this chapter shall be 217. 
deemed to impair any lien which may have attached in any way what¬ 
ever to any mining claim or property thereto attached prior to the 
issuance of a patent. 

76. This provision of law will greatly lessen the burden 
of proof, more especially in the case of old claims located 
many years since, the records of which, in many cases, 
have been destroyed by fire, or lost in other ways during 
the lapse of time, but concerning the possessory right to 
which all controversy or litigation has long been settled. 

77. When an applicant desires to make his proof of pos¬ 
sessory right in accordance with this provision of law, he 
will not be required to produce evidence of location, copies 
of conveyances, or abstracts of title, as in other cases, but 
will be required to furnish a duly certified copy of the 
statute of limitation of mining claims for the State or Ter¬ 
ritory, together with his sworn statement giving a clear 



24 


Adverse claim 
proceedings on. 

10 May, 1872, c 
152, s. 7, V. 17, p 
93. 


and succinct narration of tlie facts as to tlie origin of liis 
title, and likewise as to the continuation of his possession 
of the mining ground covered by his application; the area 
thereof; the nature and extent of the mining that has been 
done thereon; whether there has been any oxijiosition to 
his possession, or litigation with regard to his claim and, 
if so, when the same ceased; whether such cessation was 
caused by compromise or by judicial decree, and any addi¬ 
tional facts within the claimant’s knowledge having a direct 
bearing upon his possession and bona iides which he may 
desire to submit in support of his claim. 

78. There should likewise be filed a certificate, under seal 
of the court having jurisdiction of mining cases within the 
judicial district embracing the claim, that no suit or action 
of any character whatever involving the right of possession 
to any portion of the claim applied for is pending, and that 
there has been no litigation before said court affecting the 
title to said claim or any part thereof for a period equal to 
the time fixed by the statute of limitations for mining claims 
in the State or Territory as aforesaid, other than that which 
has been finally decided in favor of the claimant. 

79. The claimant should support his narrative of facts 
relative to his possession, occupancy, and imx:)rovements by 
corroborative testimony of any disinterested person or per¬ 
sons of credibility who may be cognizant of the facts in the 
case and are capable of testifying understandingly in the 
premises. 


ADVERSE CLAIMS. 

Sec. 2326, R. S. Where an adverse claim is filed during the period 
of publication, it shall be upon oath of the person or persons making 
the same, and shall show the nature, boundaries, and extent of such 
adverse claim, and all proceedings, except the publication of notice 
and making and filing of the affidavit thereof, shall be stayed until 
the controversy shall have been settled or decided by a court of com¬ 
petent jurisdiction, or the adverse claim waived. It shall be the 
duty of the adverse claimant, within thirty days after filing his 
claim, to commence proceedings in a court of competent jurisdiction, 
to determine the question of the right of possession, and prosecute 
the same with reasonable diligence to final judgment; and a failure 
so to do shall be a waiver of his adverse claim. After such judgment 
shall have been rendered, the party entitled to the possession of the 
claim, or any portion thereof, may, without giving further notice, 
file a certified copy of the judgment roll with the register of the 
land office, together with the certificate of the surveyor-general that 
the requisite amount of labor has been expended or improvements 
made thereon, and the description required in other cases, and shall 
pay to the receiver five dollars per acre for his claim, together with 
the proper fees, whereupon the whole proceedings and the judgment 
roll shall be certified by the register to the Commissioner of the 
General Land Office, and a patent shall issue thereon for the claim, 
or such portion thereof as the applicant shall appear, from the decision 
of the court, to rightly possess. If it appears from the decision of 
the court that several parties are entitled to separate and different 
portions of the claim, each party may pay for his portion of the 
claim with the proper fees, and file the certificate and description by 
the surveyor-general, whereupon the register shall certify the pro¬ 
ceedings and judgment roll to the Commissioner of the General Land 
Office, as in the preceding case, and patents shall issue to the several 
parties according to their respective rights. Nothing herein con- 










25 


tained sliall be construed to prevent tbe alienation of a title con¬ 
veyed by a patent for a mining claim to any person whatever. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Bepresentatives of the United In action 
States of America in Congress assembled, That if, in any action brought brought title not 
pursuant to section twenty-three hundred and twenty-six of the Either party 

Revised Statutes, title to the ground in controversy shall not be estab-—_^ 

lished by either party, the jury shall so find, and judgment shall be Act of Congress 

entered according to the verdict. In such case costs shall not be 

allowed to either party, and the claimant shall not proceed in the f,., 505 ). ^ ' 

land office or be entitled to a patent for the ground in controversy 

until he shall have perfected his title. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Bepresentatives of the United Adverse claim 
States of America in Congress assembled, That the adverse claim required ™ay be verified 

by section twenty-three hundred and twenty-six of the Revised Stat- hy agent. _ 

utes may be verified by the oath of any duly authorized agent or Sec. l. act of 
attorney in fact of the adverse claimant cognizant of the facts stated; Congress ap- 
and the adverse claimant, if residing or at the time being beyond the j®’ 

limits of the district wherein the claim is situated, may make oath to 49 ?^ Stat. L., 
the adverse claim before the clerk of any court of record of the United 
States or the State or Territory where the adverse claimant may then 
be, or before any notary public of such State or Territory. 

80. An adverse mining claim must be filed with the reg¬ 
ister and receiver of the land office where the application 
for patent was filed, or with the register and receiver of the 
district in which the land is situated at the time of filing 
the adverse claim. It must be on the oath of the adverse 
claimant, or it may be verified by the oath of any duly 
authorized agent or attorney in fact of the adverse claim¬ 
ant cognizant of the facts stated. 

81. Where an agent or attorney in fact verifies the adverse 
claim, he must distinctly swear that he is such agent or 
attorney, and accompany his affidavit by proof thereof. 

82. The agent or attorney in fact must make the affidavit 
in verification of the adverse claim within the land district 
where the claim is situated. 

83. The adverse notice must fully set forth the nature 
and extent of the interference or conflict j whether the 
adverse party claims as a purchaser for valuable considera¬ 
tion or as a locator; if the former, a certified copy of the 
original location, the original conveyance, a duly certified 
copy thereof, or an abstract of title from the office of tbe 
proper recorder should be furnished, or if the transaction 
was a merely verbal one he will narrate the circumstances 
attending the purchase, the date thereof, and the amount 
paid, which facts should be supported by the affidavit of 
one or more witnesses, if any were present at the time, and 
if he claims as a locator he must file a duly certified copy 
of the location from the office of tbe proper recorder. 

84. In order that theand ^^extenV^ of the 
claim may be shown, it will be incumbent upon the adverse 
claimant to file a plat showing his entire claim, its relative 
situation or position with the one against which he claims, 
and the extent of the conflict. This plat must be made 
from an actual survey by a United States deputy surveyor, 
who will officially certify thereon to its correctness; and in 
addition there must be attached to such plat of survey a 
certificate or sworn statement by the surveyor as to the 




26 


approximate value of the labor performed or improvements 
made upon the claim by the adverse party or his predeces¬ 
sors in interest, and the plat must indicate the position of 
any shafts, tunnels, or other improvements, if any such 
exist, upon the claim of the party opposing the application, 
and by which party said improvements were made: Pro- 
vided, however^ That if the application for patent describes 
the claim by legal subdivisions, the adverse claimant, if 
also claiming by legal subdivisions, may describe his ad¬ 
verse claim in the same manner without further survey 
or plat. 

85. Upon the foregoing being filed within the sixty days’ 
publication, the register, or in his absence the receiver, will 
give notice in writing to hoth parties to the contest that 
such adverse claim has been filed, informing them that the 
party who filed the adverse claim will be required within 
thirty days from the date of such filing to commence pro¬ 
ceedings in a court of competent jurisdiction to determine 
the question of right of possession, and to prosecute the 
same with reasonable diligence to final judgment, and that, 
should such adverse claimant fail to do so, his adverse claim 
will be considered waived, and the application for patent 
be allowed to proceed upon its merits. 

86. When an adverse claim is filed as aforesaid, the reg¬ 
ister or receiver will indorse upon the same the precise 
date of filing, and preserve a record of the date of notifica¬ 
tions issued thereon; and thereafter all proceedings on the 
application for patent will be suspended, with the excep¬ 
tion of the completion of the publication and posting of 
notices and plat, and the filing of the necessary proof 
thereof, until the controversy shall have been adjudicated 
in court, or the adverse claim waived or withdrawn. 

87. Where an adverse claim has been filed and suit 
thereon commenced within the statutory period, and final 
judgment determining the right of possession rendered in 
favor of the applicant, it will not be sufiicient for him to 
file with the register a certificate of the clerk of the court, 
setting forth the facts as to such judgment, but he must, 
before he is allowed to make entry, file a certified copy of 
the judgment, together with the other evidence required by 
section 2326, Eevised Statutes. 

88. Where such suit has been dismissed, a certificate of 
the clerk of the court to that efiect or a certified copy of 
the order of dismissal will be sufficient. 

89. After an adverse claim has been filed and suit com¬ 
menced, a relinquishment or other evidence of abandon¬ 
ment will not be accepted, but the case must be terminated 
and proof thereof furnished as required by the last two 
paragraphs. 

90. Where an adverse claim has been filed, but no suit 
commenced against the applicant for patent within the 
statutory period, a certificate to that effect by the clerk of 
the State court having jurisdiction in the case, and also 
by the clerk of the circuit court of the United States 
for the district in which the claim is situated, will be 
required. 





27 


VERIFICATION OF AFFIDAVITS IN RELATION TO MINERAL 

ENTRIES. 

Sec. 2335, R. S. All affidavits required to be made under this chap- Verification of 
ter may be verified before any officer authorized to administer oaths &.c. 

within the land district Avhere the claims may be situated, and all lo May, 1872, c. 
testimony and proofs may be taken before any such officer, and, when 152, s. 13,’v. iTjp. 
duly certified by the officer taking the same, shall have the same force 
and effect as if taken before the register and receiA^er of the land 
office. In cases of contest as to the mineral or agricultural character 
ot land, the testimony and proofs may be taken as herein pro Added on 
personal notice of at least ton days to the opposing party; or if such 
j)arty can not be found, then by publication of at least once a week 
lor thirty days in a newspaper, to be designated f)y the register of the 
land office as published nearest to the location of such land; and the 
register shall require proof that such notice has been given. 

_ Sec. 2. That applicants for mineral ]>atents, if residing beyond the Sec. 2, act of 
limits of the district wherein the claim is situated, may make any 
oath or aflfidaAut required for proof of citizenship before the clerk of i882 (22 Sta7. L.’ 
any court of record, or before any notary public of any State or 49). 

Territory. 

(Nee Adverse claims.) 

GENERAL LEGISLATION. 

Sec. 2338, R. S. As a condition of sale, in the absence of necessary "What condi- 
legisiation by Congress, the local legislature of any State or Territory 
may jArovide rules for working mines, invohdng easements, drainage, le^^latureT 
and other necessary means to their complete development; and those--— 

conditions shall be fully expressed in the patent. 

^ ^ 262, 8. 5, V. 14, p. 

252. 

Sec. 2339. Whenever, by priority of possession, rights to the use of Vested rights 
water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes, pf water 

haA’^e A ested and accrued, and the same are recognized and ^tcknowl- 
edged by the local customs, laws, and the decisions of courts, the canals. 

possessors and owners of such vested rights shall be maintained and-;— 

protected in the same; and the right of way for the construction of 
ditches and canals for the purposes herein specified is acknowledged 253 ’ ‘ 
and confirmed; but wheneA^er any person, in the construction of any 
ditch or canal, injures or damages the possession of any settler on the 
public domain, the party committing such injury or damage shall be 
liable to the party injured for such injury or damage. 

Sec. 2340. All patents granted, or preemption or homesteads al- Patents, P re¬ 
lowed, shall be subject to any vested and accrued water rights, 01 * p^mesteacls sub¬ 
rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water ject to vested and 
rights, as may have been acquired under or recognized by the accrued A^^ater 
preceding section. _ 

9 July, 1870, c. 

235, 8.17, V. 16, p. 

218. _ 

Sec. 2341. Wherever, upon the lands heretofore designated as min- . Mineral lands 
eral lands, which have been excluded from survey and sale, there mii^s'are 
have been homesteads made by citizens of the United States, or per-discovered open 
sons who have declared their intention to become citizens, which to homesteads, 
homesteads have been made, improved, and used for agricultural pur- 26 July 1866 c. 
poses, and upon which there ha\'e been no valuable mines of gold, 262, s. 10,V. 14.’p! 
silver, cinnabar, or copper discovered, and which are properly agri- 253. 
cultural lands, the settlers or owners of such homesteads shall have a 
right of preemption thereto, and shall be entitled to purchase the 
same at the price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and in 
quantity not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres; or they may avail 
themselves of the provisions of chapter five of this title, relating to 
“Homesteads.” 

Sec. 2342. Upon the survey of the lands described in the preceding Mineral lands, 
section, the Secretary of the Interior may designate and set apart such au 11 u^ral 
portions of the same as are clearly agricultural lands, which lands jaufis. 
shall thereafter be subject to preemption and sale as other public To July, 1866, c. 
lands, and be subject to all the laws and regulations applicable to the 262, s.ii, V. I4,’p. 
same* 








28 




Additional 
laud districts 
and officers, pow¬ 
er of tbe Presi¬ 
dent to provide. 

20 .Inly, 1866, c. 
262, s. 7, V. 14., p. 
252. 

I’rovisions of 
tliis (diapter not 
to affect certain 
riglits. 

10 May 1872, c. 
152, s. 16, V. 17, p. 
96. 

9 July, 1870, c. 
235, s. 17, V. 16, p. 
218. 

Mineral lands 
in certain States 
excepted. 

18 Feb., 1873, c. 
159, V. 17, p. 465. 

Grant of lands 
to States or cor¬ 
porations not to 
include mineral 
lands. 

30 Jan., 1865, 
Res. No. 10, V. 13, 
p. 567. 


Sec. 2343. Tlie President is authorized to establish additional land 
districts, and to appoint the necessary officers nndcr existing laws, 
wherever he may deem the same necessary for the public convenience 
in executing the provisions of this chapter. 

Sec. 2344. Nothing contained in this chai)ter shall be construed to 
impair in any way, rights or interests in mining property acquired 
under existing laws; nor to affect the provisions of the act entitled 
‘hVii act granting to A. Sutro the right of way and other privileges to 
aid in the construction of a draining and exploring tunnel to the 
Comstock lode, in the State of Nevada,^’ approved July twenty-five, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-six. 

Sec. 2345. The provisions of the jireceding sections of this chapter 
shall not apply to the mineral lands situated in the States of Michigan, 
Wisconsin, and Minui'sota, which are declared free and open to ex])lo- 
ration and purchase, according to legal subdivisions, in like manner 
as before the tenth day of IMay, eighteen hundred and seventy-two. 
And .any bona fide entries of sucli lands within the States named since 
the tenth of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, m.ay be pat¬ 
ented without reference to any of the foregoing provisions of this 
chapter. Such lands shall be offered for public sale in the s.ame man¬ 
ner, at the same minimum price, and under the same rights of pre¬ 
emption as other public lands. 

Sec. 2346. No act passed at the first session of the Thirty-eighth 
Congress, granting lands to States or corporations to aid in the con¬ 
struction of roads or for other purposes, or to extend the time of grants 
made prior to the thirtieth day of .January, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-five, shall be so construed as to embrace mineral lands, which in 
all cases .are reserved exclusively to the United States, unless other¬ 
wise specially provided in the act or acts making the grant. 


Missouri and Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Bepresentatii'es of the United 
o/America in Congress assembled, That within the States of Mis- 
tffin^of the^^in- souri and Kansas deposits of coal, iron, lead, or other mineral he, and 
oral laws. they are hereby, excluded from the operation of the act entitled “An 

-act to promote the development of the mining resources of the United 

Act of Coil- states,approved May tenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-two .and 
May^ 5 ,*T876^^(19 lands in said States shall be subject to disposal as agricultural 
Stat. L.,52).’ lands. 


Citizens of Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Bepresentatives of the United 
v.ada^'^aml of Amei'ica in Congress assembled, That all citizens of the United 

Territories au- States and other persons, bona fide residents of the State of Colorado, 
tborized to fell or Nevada, or either of the Territories of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, 
and remove tim- Wyoming, Dakota, Idaho, or Montana, and all other mineral districts 
Dc domain ^for United States, shall Ite, and are hereliy, authorized and permit- 

mining and do- 'ted to fell and remove, for building, agricultural, mining, or other 
mestic purposes, domestic purposes, any timber or other trees growing or being on the 
public lands, said lands being mineral, and not subject to entry under 
Act of Con- existing laws of the United States, except for mineral entry, in either 
Jime 3 *"*^ y 87™'(20 States, Territories, or districts of which such citizens or j)er- 

Stak l! 88). ^ sons may be at the time l)ona fide residents, subject to such rules and 

regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe for the pro¬ 
tection of the timber and of the undergrowth growing upon such 
Lands, and for other purposes: Provided, The provisions of this act 
sh.all not extend to railroad corporations. 

Sec. 2. That it shall be the duty of the register and the receiver of 
any local land office in whose district any mineral laud may be situ¬ 
ated to ascertain from time to time whether any timber is being cut 
or used upon .any such lands, except for the purposes authorized by 
this act, within their respective land districts; and, if so, they 8h.ail 
immediately notify the Commissioner of the General Land Office of 
that fact: and all necessary expenses incurred in making such proper 
examinations shall be paid and allowed such register and receiver in 
making up their next quarterly accounts. 

Sec. 3. Any person or persons who shall violate the provisions of 
this act, or any rules and regulations in pursuance thereof made by 
the Secret.ary of theTuterior, shall be deemed guilty of .a misdemeanor, 
and, upon conviction, shall be fined in any sum not exceeding five 













29 


hundred" dollars, and to which may he added imprisonment for any 
term not exceeding six months. 

Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Beprcsentatives of the United Alabama ex- 
States of America in Conyress assembled, That within the State of Ala- cepted from the 
hamaall public lands, A\ hetl)er mineral or otherwise, shall he 

to disposal only as agricultural lands: Provided, however, That all lands_ 

which have heretofore been reported to the General Land Office as Act of Con- 
containing coal and iron shall first he offered at public sale: And pro- 
vided further. That any bona fide entry under the provisions of the ytat?L.,’487). 
homestead law of lands within said State heretofore made may be 
l)atented without reference to an act approved May tenth, eighteen 
hundred and seventy-two, entitled “An act to promote the develop¬ 
ment of the mining resources of the United States,in cases where 
the persons making application for such patents have in all other 
respects complied Avith the homestead law relating thereto. 

AN ACT providing a civil government for Alaska. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of liepresentatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, * ^ * 

Sec. 8 . That the said district of Alaska is hereby created a land dis- Mining laws 
trict, and a United States land office for said district is hereby located extended to the 
at Sitka. The commissioner provided for by this act to reside at Sitka ^ilV ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

shall be ex officio register of said land office, and the clerk provided for _ 

by this act shall be ex officio receiver of public moneys and the mar- Act of Congress 
shal provided for by this act shall bo ex officio surveyor-general of approved M ay 
said district and the laws of the United States relating to mining ^ 
claims, and the rights incident thereto, shall, from and after the pas- ’’ “ 
sage of this act, be in full force and effect in said district, under 
the administration thereof herein proAuded for, subject to such regula¬ 
tions as may be made by the Secretary of the Interior, ajAproved by 
the President: Provided, That the Indians or other persons in said dis¬ 
trict shall not be disturbed in the possession of any lands actually in 
their use or occupation or now claimed by them but the terms under 
which such persons may acquire title to such lands is reserved for 
future legislation by Congress: And provided further. That parties who 
have located mines or mineral privileges therein under the laws of the 
United States applicable to the public domain, or who have occujued 
and improved or exercised acts of ownership over such claims, shall 
not be disturbed therein, but shall be allowed to perfect their title to 
such claims by payment as aforesaid: And provided also. That the laud 
not exceeding six hundred and forty acres at any station noAV occu¬ 
pied as missionary stations among the Indian tribes in said section, 
with the improAmments thereon erected by or for such societies, shall 
be continued in the occupancy of the several religious societies to 
which said missionary stations respectively belong until action by 
Congress. But nothing contained in this act shall be construed to 
put in force in said district the general land laws of the United States. 

^ * * * * * 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Bepresentatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, * * * 

No xfcrson who shall after the passage of this act, enter upon any Right of entry 
of the public lands with a vieAV to occu])ation, entry, or settlement under all the laml 
under any of the laud laws shall be permitted to acquire title to to^oacres^^'nio^ 
than three hundred and twenty acres in the aggregate, under all ofpealed|^Tee ac^t 
said laAVS, but this limitation shall not operate to curtail the right of Mar. 3,’1891, sec. 
any person who has heretofore made entry or settlement on the pub- 17.) 
lie lands, or Avhose occupation, entry or settlement, is validated fS^rfirht 

this act: Provided, That in all patents for lands hereafter taken up pj-^^ayforditches 
under any of the land laws of the United States or on entries or claims and canals con- 
Amlidated by this act west of the one hundredth meridian, it shall be structed. 
expressed that there is reserA^ed from the lands in said patent described ActofCon^^ress 
a rifrlit of wav thereon for ditches or canals constructed by the author- approved'’Au- 
itv of the United States. * * gust30,1890. (26 

^ Stat. L., 371.) 


> 





AN ACT To repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes. 


Town sites on 
mineral lands au¬ 
thorized. 

Lands entered 
under the min¬ 
eral laws not in¬ 
cluded in restric¬ 
tion to 320 acres. 


Act of Con¬ 
gress approved 
March 3, 1891 (26 
Stat. L., 1095). 


Surveyor • gen¬ 
eral to appoint 
surveyors of min¬ 
ing claims, etc. 


10 May, 1872, c. 
152,s.ll v. 17, p. 
95. 


Beit enacted hy the Senate and House of Bepresentatives of the United 
States of America in Conyi'ess assembled, * * * 

Sec. 16. That town-site entries may be made by incorporated towns 
and cities on the mineral lands of the United States, but no title shall 
be acquired by such towns or cities to any vein of gold, silver, cinna¬ 
bar, copper, or lead, or to any valid mining claim or possession held 
under existing law. When mineral veins are possessed Avithin the 
limits of an incorporated town or city, and such possession is recog¬ 
nized by local authority or by the laws of the United States, the title 
to town lots shall be subject to such recognized possession and the 
necessary use thereof and when entry has been made or patent issued 
for such town sites to snch incorporated town or city, the possessor of 
such mineral vein may enter and receive patent for such mineral vein, 
and the surface ground appertaining thereto: Provided, That no entry 
shall be made by such mineral-vein claimant for surface ground where 
the owner or occupier of the surface ground shall have had possession 
of the same before the inception of the title of the mineral-vein appli¬ 
cant. 

Sec. 17. That reservoir sites located or selected and to be located 
and selected under the provisions of ‘‘An act making appropriations 
for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending 
June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and for other pur¬ 
poses,” and amendments thereto, shall be restricted to and shall con¬ 
tain only so much land as is actually necessary for the construction 
and maintenance of reservoirs; excluding so far as practicable lands 
occupied by actual settlers at the date of the location of said reser¬ 
voirs and that the provisions of “An act making appropriations for 
sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending 
June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and for other pur- 
jioses,” which reads as follows, viz: “no person who shal lafter the 
passage of this act enter upon any of the public lands with a view to 
occupation, entry, or settlement under any of the land laws shall be 
permitted to acquire title to more than three hundred and twenty 
acres in the aggregate under all said laws,” shall be construed to 
include in the maximum amount of lands the title to which is per¬ 
mitted to be acquired by one person only agricultural lands and not 
include lauds entered or sought to be entered under mineral land 
laws. 

if if if if if 


APPOINTMENT OF DEPUTIES FOR SURVEY OF MINING 

CLAIMS—CHARGES FOR SURVEYS AND PUBLICATIONS 

—FEES OF REGISTERS AND RECEIVERS, ETC. 

Sec. 2334, R. S. The surveyor-general of the United States may 
appoint in each land district containing mineral lands .as many com¬ 
petent surveyors as shall apply for appointment to survey mining 
claims. The expenses of the survey of vein or lode claims, and the 
survey and subdivision of placer claims into smaller quantities than 
one hundred and sixty acres, together with the cost of publication of 
notices, shall be paid by the applicants, and they shall be at liberty 
to obtain the same at the most reasonable rates, and they shall also be 
at liberty to employ any United States deputy surveyor to make the 
survey. The Commissioner of the General Land Office shall also have 
power to establish the maximum charges for surveys and publication 
of notices under this chapter; and, in case of excessive charges for 
publication, he may designate any newspaper published in a land 
district where mines are situated for the publication of mining notices 
in such district, and fix the rates to be charged by such paper; and, 
to the end that the Commissioner may be fully informed on the sub¬ 
ject, each applicant shall file with the register a sworn statement of 
all charges and fees paid by such applicant for publication and sur¬ 
veys, together with all fees and money paid the register and the 
receiver of the land office, which statement shall be transmitted, Avith 
the other papers in the case, to the Commissioner of the General Land 
Office. 




31 


91. Under tliis authority of law the following rates have 
been established as the maximum charges for newspaper 
publications in mining cases: 

(1) Where a daily newspaper is designated the charge 
shall not exceed seven dollars for each ten lines of space 
occupied, and where a weekly newspaper is designated as 
the medium of publication five dollars for the same space 
will be allowed. Such charge shall be accepted as full pay¬ 
ment for publication in each issue of the newspaper for the 
entire period required by law. 

It is expected that these notices shall not be so abbrevi¬ 
ated as to curtail the description essential to a perfect 
notice, and the said rates established upon the understand¬ 
ing that they are to be in the usual body type used for 
advertisements. 

(2) For the publication of citations in contests or hear¬ 
ings involving the character of lands the charges shall not 
exceed eight dollars for five publications in weekly news¬ 
papers or ten dollars for publications in daily newspapers 
for thirty days. 

92. The surveyors-general of the several districts will, in 
pursuance of said law, appoint in each land district as many 
competent deputies for the survey of mining claims as may 
seek such ai)pointment, it being distinctly understood that 
all expenses of these notices and surveys are to be borne 
by the mining claimants and not by the United States. 
The claimant may employ a7iy deputy surveyor within such 
district to do his work in the field. Each deputy mineral 
surveyor before entering upon the duties of his office or 
appointment shall be required to enter into such bond for 
the faithful performance of his duties as may be prescribed 
by the regulations of the Land Department in force at that 
time. 

93. With regard to the platting of the claim and other 
office work in the surveyor-generahs office, that officer will 
make an estimate of the cost thereof, which amount the 
claimant will deposit with any assistant United States 
treasurer or designated depository in favor of the United 
States Treasurer, to be passed to the credit of the fund 
created by “ individual depositors for surveys of the pub¬ 
lic lands,” and file with the surveyor general duplicate 
certificates of such deposit in the usual manner. 

94. The surveyors-general will endeavor to appoint min¬ 
eral deputy surveyors, so that one or more may be located 
in each mining district for the greater convenience of 
miners. 

95. The usual oaths will be required of these deputies 
and their assistants as to the correctness of each survey 
executed by them. 

The duty of the deputy mineral surveyor ceases when 
he has executed the survey and returned the field notes 
and preliminary plat thereof with his report to the surveyor- 
general. He will not be allowed to prepare for the min¬ 
ing claimant the papers in support of an application for 
patent or otherwise perform the duties of an attorney 
before the land office in connection with a mining claim. 


32 


The surveyors-general and local land officers are expected 
to rej)ort any infringement of this regulation to this office. 

9G. Should it appear that excessive or exorbitant charges 
have been made by any surveyor or any publisher, prompt 
action will be taken with the view of correcting the abuse. 

07. The fees payable to the register and receiver for filing 
and acting upon applications for mineral-land patents are 
five dollars to each officer, to be paid by tlie applicant for 
patent at the time of filing, and the like sum of five dollars 
is payable to each officer by an adverse claimant at the 
the time of filing his adverse claim. (Sec. 2238, K. S., 
paragraph 9.) 

98. At the time of payment of fee for mining application 
or adverse claim the receiver will issue his receipt therefor 
in duplicate, one to be given the applicant or adverse 
claimant, as the case may be, and one to be forwarded to 
the Commissioner of the General Land Office on the day of 
issue. The receipt for mining application should have 
attached the certificate of the register that the lands 
included in the application are vacant lands subject to 
such appropriation. 

99. The register and receiver will, at the close of each 
month, forward to this office an abstract of mining applica¬ 
tions filed, and a’ register of receipts, accompanied with an 
abstract of mineral lands sold, and an abstract of adverse 
claims filed. 

100. The fees and purchase money received by registers 
and receivers must be placed to the credit of the United 
States in the receiver’s monthly and quarterly account, 
charging up in the disbursing account the sums to which 
the register and receiver may be respectively entitled as 
fees and commissions, with limitations in regard to the 
legal maximum. 

HEARINGS TO DETERMINE CHARACTER OF LANDS. 

101. The Eules of Practice in cases before the United 
States district land offices, the General Land Office, and 
the Department of the Interior will, so far as apiilicable, 
govern in all cases and proceedings arising in contests and 
hearings to determine the mineral character of lands. 

102. E'o public land shall be withheld from entry as 
agricultural land on account of its mineral character 
except such as is returned by the surveyor-gen era! as min¬ 
eral; and the presumption arising from such a return may 
be overcome by testimony taken in the manner hereinafter 
described. 

103. Hearings to determine the character of lands are 
practically of two kinds, as follows: 

(1) Lands returned as mineral by the surveyor-general. 

When such lands are sought to be entered as agricultural 
under laws which require the submission of final proof after 
due notice by publication and posting, the filing of the 
proper nonmineral affidavit in the absence of allegations 
that the land is mineral will be deemed sufficient as a pre¬ 
liminary requirement. A satisfactory showing as to char¬ 
acter of land must be made when final proof is submitted. 





33 


III case of application to enter, locate, or select such lands 
as agricultural, under laws in which the submission of final 
proof after due i^ublication and posting is not required, 
notice thereof must first be given by publication for sixty 
days and posting in the local office during the same period, 
and affirmative proof as to the character of the land sub¬ 
mitted. In the absence of allegations that the laud is 
mineral, and upon compliance with this requirement, the 
entry, location, or selection will be allowed, if otherwise 
regular. 

(2) Lands returned as agricultural and alleged to be min¬ 
eral in character. 

Where as against the claimed right to enter such lands 
as agricultural it is alleged that the same are mineral, or 
are applied for as mineral lands, the proceedings in this 
class of cases will be in the nature of a contest, and the 
practice will be governed by the rules in force in contest 
cases. 


RAILROAD AND STATE SELECTIONS. 

104. Where a railroad company seeks to select lands not 
returned as mineral, but within six miles of any mining loca¬ 
tion, claim, or entry, or where in the case of a selection by 
a State, the lands sought to be selected are within a town¬ 
ship in which there is a mining location, claim, or entry, 
publication must be made of the lands selected at the 
expense of the railroad company or State for a period of 
sixty days, with posting for the same period in the laud 
office for the district in which the lands are situated, during 
which period of publication the local land officers will 
receive protests or contests for any of said tracts or sub¬ 
divisions of lands claimed to be more valuable for mining 
than for agricultural purposes. 

105. At the expiration of the period of publication the 
register and receiver will forward to the Commissioner of 
the General Land Office the published list, noting thereon 
any protests, or contests, or suggestions as to the mineral 
character of any such lands, together with any information 
they may have received as to the mineral character of any 
of the lands mentioned in said list, when a hearing may be 
ordered. 

106. At the hearings under either of the aforesaid classes, 
the claimants and witnesses will be thoroughly examined 
with regard to the character of the land; whether the same 
has been thoroughly prospected j whether or not there 
exists within the tract or tracts claimed any lode or vein of 
quartz or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, 
lead, tin, or copper, or other valuable deposit which has 
ever been claimed, located, recorded, or worked; whether 
such work is entirely abandoned, or whether occasionally 
resumed; if such lode does exist, by whom claimed, under 
what designation, and in which subdivision of the land it 
lies; whether any placer mine or mines exist upon the laud; 
if so, what is the character thereof—whether of the shallow- 
surface description, or of the deep cement, blue lead, or 

10103-3 



34 


gravel deposits; to what extent mining is carried on when 
w^ater can be obtained, and what the facilities are for 
obtaining water for mining purposes; upon what particu¬ 
lar ten-acre subdivisions mining has been done, and at what 
time the land was abandoned for mining purposes, if aban¬ 
doned at all. 

107. The testimony should also show the agricultural 
capcicities of the laud, what kind of crops are raised thereon, 
and the value thereof; the number of acres actually culti¬ 
vated for crops of cereals or vegetables, and within which 
l^articular ten-acre subdivision such crops are raised; also 
which of these subdivisions embrace the improvements, 
giving in detail the extent and value of the imi)rovements, 
such as house, barn, vineyard, orchard, fencing, etc., and 
milling improvements. 

108. The testimony should be as full and complete as pos¬ 
sible; and in addition to the leading points indicated above, 
where an attemjit is made to prove the mineral character 
of lands which have been entered under the agricultural 
laws, it should show at what date, if at all, valuable de¬ 
posits of mineral were first known to exist on the lands. 

109. When the case comes before this office such decision 
will be made as the law and the facts may justify; in cases 
where a survey is necessary to set apart the mineral from 
the agricultural land, the proper party at Ms oim expense 
will be required to have the work done, at his option, either 
by United States deputy, county, or other local surveyor; 
application therefor must be made to the register and re¬ 
ceiver, accompanied by a descrix^tion of the land to be seg¬ 
regated, and the evidence of service upon the oi)posite party 
of notice of his intention to have such segregation made; 
the register and receiver will forward the same to this office, 
when the necessary instructions for the survey will be 
given. The survey in such case, where the claims to be 
segregated are vein or lode claims, must be executed in 
such manner as will conform to the requirements in section 
2320, United States Kevised Statutes, as to length and 
width and x:)arallel end lines. 

110. Such survey when executed must be properly sworn 
to by the surveyor, either before a notary public, officer of 
a court of record, or before the register or receiver, the 
deponent’s character and credibility to be properly certified 
to by the officer administering the oath. 

111. Upon the filing of the plat and field notes of such 
survey with the register and receiver, duly sworn to as 
aforesaid, they will transmit the same to the surveyor- 
general for his verification and approval; who, if he finds 
the work correctly performed, will properly mark out the 
same upon the original township plat in his office, and 
furnish authenticated copies of such jdat and description 
both to the proper local land office and to this office, to be 
affixed to the duplicate and triplicate township plats* 
respectively. 

112. With the copy of plat and description furnished the 
local office and this office, must be a diagram tracing, 
verified by the surveyor-general, showing tlie claim or 


35 


claims segregated, and designating the separate fractional 
agricultural tracts in each 40-acre legal subdivision by the 
proper lot number, beginning with No. 1 in each section, 
and giving the area in each lot, the same as provided in 
paragraph 45, in the survey of mining claims on surveyed 
lands. 

113. The fact that a certain tract of land is decided upon 
testimony to be mineral in character is by no means equiva¬ 
lent to an award of the land to a miner. In order to secure 
a patent for such land he must proceed as in other cases, in 
accordance with the foregoing regulations. 

Blank forms for proofs in mineral cases are not furnished 
by the General Land Office. 

MINERAL ENTRIES AVITHIN FOREST RESERVES. 

The following is an extract from circular entitled Eules 
and Eegulations governing Forest Eeservations, estab¬ 
lished under section 24 of the act of March 3, 1891 (26 
Stat. L., 1095). Approved June 30, 1897. (24 L. D., 589- 
593-594.) 


LOCATION AND ENTRY OF MINERAL LANDS. 

19. The law provides that “any mineral lands in any 
forest reservation which have been or which may be shoAvn 
to be such, and subject to entry under the existing mining 
laws of the United States and the rules and regulations 
applying thereto, shall continue to be subject to such loca¬ 
tion and entry,” notwithstanding the reservation. This 
makes mineral lands in the forest reserves subject to loca¬ 
tion and entry under the general mining laws in the usual 
manner. 

20. Owners of valid mining locations made and held in 
good faith under the mining laws of the United States and 
the regulations thereunder are authorized and permitted 
to fell and remove from such mining claims any timber 
growing thereon, for actual mining purposes in connection 
with the particular claim from which tlie timber is felled 
or removed. (For further use of timber by miners see be¬ 
low, under heading “Free use of timber and stone.”) 

FREE USE OF TIMBER AND STONE. 

21. The law provides that “The Secretary of the Inte¬ 
rior may iiermit, under regulations to be prescribed by him, 
the use of timber and stone found upon such reservations, 
free of charge, by bona fide settlers, miners, residents, and 
prospectors for minerals, for firewood, fencing, buildings, 
milling, prospecting, and other domestic purposes, as may 
be needed by such persons for such purposes; such timber 
to be used within the State or Territory, respectively, where 
such reservations may be located.” 

This provision is limited to persons resident in forest 
reservations who have not a sufficient supply of timber or 
stone on their own claims or lands for the purposes enumer¬ 
ated, or for necessary use in developing the mineral or other 


36 


natural resources of the lands owned or occupied by them. 
Such persons, therefore, are i)ermitted to take timber aud 
stone from public lands in the forest reservations under the 
terms of the law above quoted, strictly for their individual 
use on their own claims or lands owned or occupied by 
them, but not for sale or disposal, or use on other lands, or 
by other persons: Provided^ Thabwhere the stumpage value 
exceeds one hundred dollars, application must be made to 
and permission given by the Department. 

BmaER Hermann, 

CommisHioner. 

Approved December 15, 1897. 

O. K. Bliss, 

Secretary, 



IKDEX. 


Annual expenditure. 

Adverse claims. 

Affidavits—verifieaticm. 

Alaska. 

Ap])lieation. 

Buildiu;ij; stone. 

Charges for survf^ys. 

Charges for publication. 

Citizenship, proof required. 

Claims located and patented prior to ISIay 10, 1872 . 

Claims located subsequent to May 10, 1872.. 

Deputy mineral surveyors. 

Description of claim. 

Entry .. 

Expenditure... 

Exploration. 

Fees of r«*gi8ter and receiver. 

Forest reserves. 

Forfeiture. 

General legislation. 

Hearings to determine the character of lauds. 

Lode claims: 

Location. 

Entry and patent. 

Mill sites. 

Mining-district regulations. 

Occupation. 

Patent, procedure to obtain : 

Lode claims. 

Placers . 

Mill sites.- 

Petroleum. (<S’ec Placers.) 

Placers . 

Building stone. 

Petroleum, etc. 

Possessory right.-. 

Protest . 

Purchase. 

Railroad and State selections. 

Revised Statutes, sections of: 

2318— General reservation of mineral lands. 

2319— Mineral lands opened to occupation and purchase. 

2320— Location of lode claims. 

2321— Proof of citizenshij). 

2322— Extent of right of possession and enjoyment of lode claims. 

2323— Tunnel claims. 

2324— Local mining regulations—Auuual expenditure—f^orfeiture. 

2325— Procedure to obtain patent lor lode claims. 

2326— Adverse claims, prosecution of. 

2327— Location—description shall refer to lines of subdivisional surveys.. 

2328— Pending applications—existing laws. 

2329— Entry and patent of placers.. 

2330— Legal subdivisions may be divided for purposes of placer location. 

2331— Placers to conform to iegal subdivisions—limitation of claims. 

37 


Page. 

6 

24 

27 

29 
13-19 

11 

30 
30 


4 

4 

30 

6 

13-19 


6,14 
3 

30 
35 
6 
27 
32, 33 


3 

I. 3-19 

21 

6 

3 

13 

19 

21 

II, 19 
11 
12 

23 
19 

3 

33 

3 

3 

3 

22 

3,4 

9 

6 

13 

24 
6 

.11 

11 

II 

11 


















































38 


Kevised Statutes, sections of—Contiuned. Page. 

2332— Possessory right, evidence necessarj^ to establish title. 23 

2333— Patents for ])lacers—known lode. 20 

2334— Appointment of surveyors—charges for survey and publication- 30 

2335— Verification of affidavits. 27 

2336— Intersection and union of veins. 4 

2337— Entry and patent for mill sites. 21 

2338— Conditions relative to easements, drainage, etc. 27 

2339— Vested rights to use of water—right of way. 27 

2340— Patents to be subject to vested rights. 27 

2341, 2342—Lands found to contain no valuable mines to bo disposed of as 

agricultural. 27 

2343— Additional land districts authorized. 28 

2344— Mining laws not to affect rights granted to A. Sutro. 28 

2345— Mineral lands in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota excepted_ 28 

2346— Grants to States or corporations not to be construed to include min¬ 

eral lands. 28 

Supplemental acts: 

June 6, 1874—Expenditure, annual. 6 

February 11, 1875—Expenditure on tunnels. 8 

May 5, 1876—Kansas and Missouri. 28 

June 3, 1878—Timber cutting on mineral lands. 28 

January 22, 1880—Application by agent. 14 

Expenditure, annual. 6 

March 3, 1881—Adverse suit—judgment. 25 

April 26, 1882—Adverse claim, verification of.. 25 

Citizenship, affidavit of. 27 

March 3, 1883—Alabama lands. 29 

May 17, 1884—Mineral laws extended to Alaska. 29 

August 30, 1890—Entry restricted to 320 acres. 29 

Right of way for ditches, etc. 29 

March 3, 1891—Town sites on nuneral lands. 30 

320-acre restriction not to include mineral lands. 30 

August 4, 1892—Building stone. 11 

July 18, 1894—Expenditure, annual, suspended. 8 

February 11, 1897—Petroleum and mineral oils. 12 

State selections. (See Railroad and State selections.) 

Timber and .stone, use of. 35 

Tunnels. 9 

Water, rights to the use of... 27 


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